As she gets tired of being right ALL the time...

Halloween was great: can't remember a year when it has been nicer outside for trick-or-treating!! The temp was comfortable enough that Faith was able to go without tights in her "tiger" costume and Grace was... well, Grace was fine, after some minor adjustments. Being right is sometimes a real drag: When we went shopping for the costumes, I said, "Grace, be sure to FEEL THIS COSTUME because it might be "itchy"..." Itchy is a very big thing at our house. No, no, I was assured - not too itchy. Tinkerbell is the bomb. So, fast forward to about 6:00 on October 31... the costume is not even all the way over her head and MADNESS ensues because the costume is - you guessed it - WAY WAY WAY too itchy. Sigh. We worked it out, but it was a close call. :) Jimmy and I had a *riot* walking with the girls: Faith had an editorial comment for everyone - the best one being, "That guy had a little bowl" (of course, "that guy" still had his door wide open and heard her commentary). Grace referred to herself in the 3rd person, as in (while walking through a yard with foot-tall grass): "uh - oh, Tinkerbell doesn't like grass!!!!"

As she cleans up the pumpkin muck!!

Carved pumpkins tonight - lots of fun! Grace might have enjoyed it more than Faith... for good reason: Faith's pumpkin had a soft spot and was, let's say, less than pleasant to clean out. You might be able to tell from the looks on their faces in the pictures who was having more fun! Even so, I think they all turned out great!! (A couple of attempts at making "pumpkin bats" or "super pumpkin" or something failed, so we stuck with slight variations of the old standby jack o'lantern face).

Went to Hannibal last weekend... had a nice visit with Mom and Dad (aka "Gannie" and "Pops"), Gabie, Josiah, managed to squeeze in a visit with Daniel and crew, and even popped in on the Evans clan to say hi on Sunday.

Mom, Faith, Grace and I went to a corn maze outside of Hannibal on Saturday afternoon. We had a great time in the maze - it was a gorgeous day! And then we got to ride around on a limo-ish golf cart and pick out some pumpkins. Lots of fun, and felt great to have the sun on our shoulders and warm wind (for what looks like the last time this year!!).

As She Realizes She Misses the Noise from the Weekend!!

We had a great holiday weekend with friends and family. Chelly, Jared and Riley came to Missouri for a visit, so the Evans clan converged at our house in Columbia and it was so much fun. Barry, Jenny, Reid and Mallie came, as did Vicky and Randy, AND Daniel, AND Anne, at it was party central for the 1st Mizzou game of the year. Go Tigers! Faith and Grace came back from their dad's on Sunday morning, and they were quite a help with the little cousins... at least with keeping them entertained. Between babies not sleeping as well as they do in their own beds and many, many rounds of hillbilly golf (thanks for letting us girls play, btw guys), a late-night trip to see the bright lights of the Boonville casino, and Jimmy's ever-running MOUTH (love ya, baby!!) it was rather a NOISY weekend. But now I'm sitting here by myself and it's too quiet!!

Thanks everyone for coming. It was great to see you all and hope we can do it again soon!

As She Realizes Her Girls Are Growing Up SO Fast!!!

I'm such a wuss, but I can barely even type it. Today was the 1st day of 1st grade at a brand new school. It didn't even phase the girls, but I fretted all day today and cried like a baby last night. I am so proud of how they have grown, and the difference from just the beginning of this summer until now is just amazing. They are getting so big and, as I told Grace last night when she asked, "Why are you crying, Mommy??" I said, "Well, you just used to be so little, and now you are so big... it's like, I *grew* you in my tummy and now you're just - so grown up and it's so COOL!!" To which Grace replied, "I'm not THAT grown up." :) Faith made a friend already today, and got good remarks on her homework, and Grace has already earned a pajama party for tomorrow. We're off to a good start! (And I will probably not fret as much tomorrow, either!)

As a Bunch of Fish in Windsor Were Saved From a Deep-Fried Fate

We had a great time fishing this weekend in Windsor, MO. We went to visit the Varner family and Jimmy took the girls and I fishing (along with Jenny, Reid and Randy) on Saturday afternoon. I had been feeling guilty because I have taken the girls fishing a few times and they have never caught a fish. You can then imagine Faith's shock when she caught a HUGE bass after her line had been in the water for *maybe* two minutes right when we got there. She was scared to death of it! I helped her reel it in and Jimmy got it off of the hook... it was flapping and flopping all over the place. She wanted NOTHING to do with the thing! We barely even got a picture.

Grace and I both continued to catch fish. Faith took quite a few "breaks" after catching the big one. But Jimmy threw back every darn one of those fish -- even the crappie we caught, which was quite disappointing to me. Hours of fishing and nothing to show for it but leftover minnows. We'll have to do something different next time!

(Thanks to Jenny, Barry, Reid and Mallie for having us... it was great fun, as always!)

As she dreads the return to work after a wonderful long weekend at Big Cedar!!

Well, just back from a lovely long weekend at Big Cedar with Faith, Grace and Anne. Had a great time, and even managed to squeeze in a visit with Jana and Bryan in Nixa, and Jimmy met us on the way back through. So, a week spent with lots of folks that I love! Big Cedar was wonderful. The scenery (above) is just gorgeous. Had a nice relaxing time by the pool(s) and finally got some sun on my skin! We went horseback riding on Saturday morning to finish things off; Faith and her horse, Jake, led the group of us. Grace and I both had horses (Snickers and Hershey, maybe it was the candybar names) that had some trouble - they wanted to stop and eat various foilage along the way. This is apparently against "good horse" rules. Tell that to some animal that has me on its back and that is about 4 or 5 or 6 times my size. Anyway, good times, very relaxing, and now am dreading going to work tomorrow, of course. Although, the sooner Monday gets here, the sooner Friday will be here, which means #1 - my Thursday trial will be over, and #2 - most importantly - we'll be moving to the new house!!! More on that later this week.

As she reports that things were dry in Hannibal for the 4th... maybe too dry

Went home for the 4th of July. Had a good time - hung out with the ruthless and the toothless at Tanyard Gardens and heard a great band called Torque on Thursday night, saw lots of old cronies. Hung with the family on Friday, nearly broke my neck on a stupid carnival ride, and watched the fireworks from Union Street - perfect view!! Frog Jumping on Saturday night, and then a nice (thought short) visit with Katie and Regan on Saturday night. That pretty much sums it up: a little beer, family, friends, and a whole bunch of naps :) What more do you need from a vacation!! No mud volleyball makes things very different... drier, in more ways than one!

Happy Independence, all!

As she looks at the pictures from the weekend and says, OUCH

Great time had by all this weekend. We went to Kansas City to celebrate Anne's birthday by attending the Cardinals/Royals Game. We tailgated in the parking lot before the game, "watched" the game (I think Jimmy and I were in the line for beer for the majority of the time), went down to the Power & Light District downtown KC, and then it gets a wee bit blurry. Here are a couple of pics... you might guess which one is from the beginning of the night and which is from the end. :)

As she reports on our fun in the (not so much) sun

Well, we had a pretty great weekend, all things considered. Grace, Faith, Auntie Anne, Jimmy and I all met in St. Louis and had a fun weekend planned to continue the 6th birthday celebration. The Zoo, Grant's Farm, a little bit of this and that, some swimming, and so on. Saturday, we made it to the zoo and had a great time. Favorite sights were: the penguins, the hyenas, and for goodness sake - riding the TRAIN!! The showers were scattered and the cool temperatures were enough to keep the crazy crowds away. We did luck out and see Regan, Chris, Ethan and baby Gracie though!! Enter the rain. Our big outing on Sunday ended up being TARGET. So, Faith and Grace are now mean UNO players (though it is no secret when Grace gets dealt a Draw 4 Wild card), and we've seen the Adventures of SharkBoy and LavaGirl more than anyone needs to. But it was a great, relaxing holiday weekend, and the rain probably saved us from overdoing it. And who can beat putting on the goggles and playing in the hose in the backyard, anyway???

As she reflects on being so lucky to have a deer-hunting husband...

Last weekend, lucky us, Jimmy finally got his deer head back from the taxidermist. He's been dying for me to get a picture up for all to see. I found a picture of the deer, au natural (i.e. BEFORE stuffing) and here it is. So proud! Honestly, I never thought I would admit it, but it is kindof pretty. After you get over the whole 'killing-something-for-sport' thing. I don't know about putting it in the living room or anything, but maybe the... well... hallway?? :)

As she wishes everyone... Happy Earth Day 2008!

We went to Mizzou's Peace Park today and celebrated Earth Day with our fellow Columbians. It was great to sit in the sunshine and get HOT even! Faith and Grace enjoyed, as always, playing in the creek, holding crawdads, and catching tadpoles. Another favorite is always the Earth Ball (that's Faith taking a turn). We've been three years in a row now, and there's always something great to see... and something that makes us appreciate our natural resources. Cheesy maybe, but true. This year, we made Jimmy go and when we got home, he even picked a can out of the regular trash to put it into the recycling - without me griping at him first. Yahoo! :)

As she tries to type through the cloud of cough...

Thank GOODNESS Spring is Spring-ing!! We have been running around in a flurry of cough around here for what seems like weeks now. The girls have been hyped up on cough syrup for as long as I can take it! :) Hope everyone has started to thaw out and that we can all open our houses to some fresh air this week/weekend! Have a good one, everyone!

As she says "I told you so..."

I know, I know... Long time, no write. I knew this is exactly what would happen: that I'd take the time to get my page all set up, and then TOTALLY run out of time to update the damn thing. Well, finally, we have updates!! I had been trying to upload wedding pictures for the past month, but anytime I tried at work it made my computer lock up and the old computer at home was TOO slow. But we're cooking with gas now: new home computer, new speedy internet access, and, voila - new pics! I'll get more posted soon... I'm still learning!

As she explains the Blog Name...

Like wildfire, the family blogspot is spreading, and I thought I should explain (i.e. admit) why our page does not include our last names. It's a fairly simple, perhaps paranoid, reason: I don't like the idea of everyone in cyberspace having access to my personal info (read: I don't want clients to be able to find stuff out about my family by google-ing me). So, that's the reason for the lame-o attempt at the clever title and the reason for the EY (hint, hint). Wedding pics soon, I promise!! G

As she finally succumbs to the "my-family-has-their-own-webpage" madness...

Alright, fine... I'll finally dip my toe into this "see-how-great-my-family-is-and-how-many-cool- friends-I-have" pool that I have been avoiding (a la MySpace, FaceBook, and whatever other stuff is out there). I really love the *idea* of having a place where friends and family can look me up, it's just the pressure of having another obligation of stuff to update! And then - when I stop updating the darn thing, or go for longer than usual between updates, will people wonder what on earth has happened to me?? I hate creating unrealistic expectations. :) Keep in mind that if I wait a while before updating again, I am probably NOT trapped under something heavy. Just busy! So, on that jovial note: on with the sharing!